Author
Topic: Pizza with Mmmph (Read 56376 times)

A couple of weeks ago, I posted about my new experience with cake yeast on my LBE. I thought I'd post some pics from this weeks bake.

This week, I used 70% KABF and 30% Caputo. I could have reduced the hydration, because of the Caputo, but let it ride. Three hour room temp bulk rise, balled and planned on 36 hour fridge rise, but could not bake on Saturday, so I ended up with 60 hours in the refrigerator for a Sunday afternoon bake. The dough had spread out a bit in my Doughmate Artisan tray, and was bordering on overblown...Anyway the doughs were rather squarish to start the bake, so they finished squarish when done. Not the best looking pies I've made, but some of the tastiest!

@Chau: For a heat deflector, I use an 10 inch old round cast iron griddle with the handle hacksawed off. It's placed on the charcoal grate directly above the Bayou Kitchen SP-10 burner. The stone I bought from amazon.com. It's an Old Stone baking stone 20.5x16x.75 in. Funny thing, though, I don't see that stone on amazon.com anymore. The carry "The Grilled Pizza Stone" which looks identical.

The stone rests on 4 squashed balls of heavy-duty aluminum foil on top of the grill. My dome is similar to yours and jasonmolinari's.

To bake, I try to start the pies in with the stone in the low 600's F, because as soon as I place one on the stone, I crank the gas wide-open. My guests say it sounds like a jet engine. I lay the pies on the stone with a perforated peel, to help eliminate excess flour. I then use an aluminum pizza tray to turn the pie for more even baking....My technique is like the villa roma youtube video. I go 40 seconds, then turn, wait 15, turn wait 15 and so on. My pies are 1:40-2:10.

Six pies this Sunday. All on the LBE...All made with my sourdough creation, Moby. Named after Herman Melville's antagonist, Moby Dick, the white whale, who is a symbol for many things, including nature and those elements of life that are out of human control.

I've been searching for the white whale of sourdough for years. I've tried buying cultures, and making my own...Then I tried the Silverton method this winter, and (like Ahab) found that thing I've been looking for. Mmmm, Moby Pies!

Your Moby pies are truly stunning! They look incredible; the colors just pop, you got some nice leoparding going on, and the char is beautiful. I'd love to see the crumb next time. You also have some really interesting and exciting flavors going on that I have not seen before. If you would to share the secret recipe for your Umami Bomb#1, I'd love to try it.

Thank you very much for posting.

Craig

Logged

"We make great pizza, with sourdough when we can, commercial yeast when we must, but always great pizza." Craig's Neapolitan Garage

@Craig; the crumb as beautiful, light and picture perfect. I always ask my guests to judge my pies by the crust. One of them held up their slice to show me the crumb and said, "That's the money shot! He then ate it."

We're always busy eating the pies and forget some shots.

Your efforts are inspiring... all of your food.

@Norma; Your pies are beautiful. The Pizzarium thread is amazing. I actually use one of your Pizzarim crumb shots as my iPhone background. See below.

@Chau: Dude, your pies are completely droolworthy!

Moby has a great smell...Especially the hootch on top. It's has great oven spring and a light crumb. The flavor is mild, but with a bit of tang. My favorite aspect of this culture is it's extensibility. Too often, the cultures I've used are rather tight and don't want to open up. Or they're on the other end of that spectrum, and they have too much acid. The gluten starts to break down, leaving me with skins that tear too easily when trying to open them up.

Moby acts more like commercial yeasted dough, which I still prefer to bake, and eat.

Umami Bomb #1; With white pies, I draw a spiral on the skin, then top from there. On red pies, I sauce first, then draw the spiral. I generally go around three times from the cornicione.

I found a piece of clipart that sort of shows the pattern. See below.

I'll gladly post the Umami Bomb #1 recipe, once I type it up. It's all in a scrawl on looseleaf paper right now...But to which forum topic does it belong??

buceriasdon

Mmmph, I am also interested in your umami paste as I make a similar sauce I believe. Umami is the 5th. taste in Japanese meaning savory with sweet, sour, bitter and salty the most commonly known tastes. MSG was invented to create this taste. My experiments were inspired by a Japanese cookbook's reference which lead me to this recipe for ketchup. http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Umami-Ketchup which I changed to suit what I have available to me and my taste. I added dried mushrooms and Maggi sauce and used roasted tomato, seaweed........closer to thishttp://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2009/09/spicy-umami-ketchup-recipe.htmlDon

Ran a couple of those photos through the Color Correction program and put the requisite depth-of-field blur on one as well.

This just in:

Quote

Sir, I must plead for you to hear me out. Anti grill agents Villa Roma, Jackie Tran, an even more anonymous person going by the code name "Mmmph" and similar malcontents are polluting your judgment with these pictures...which are fabrications and outright propaganda. Please kind sir, refrain from succumbing to said propaganda, stop looking out of the window at me and step away from the hacksaw.

I look forward to being filled with charcoal and grilling a fish for you this summer. That is all and thank you for your consideration and ongoing generosity.

Mmmph, your results are very good. Please post some pics of the inside of your lid. If you think you would like some extra top heat, start reading here http://www.pizzamaking.com/forum/index.php/topic,11126.msg110685.html#msg110685. Down at reply 249 Don gives the 'nuts and bolts' of a vortex generator. In essence, a wing to point the hot air in the dome down toward the pizza. Keep us posted with pics, they look good.

SWEET! great use of the Sprags ! (asparagus) What is your procedure for them? place on pie raw? blanch? peel? cold... Also where did you get your top of the line neapolitan peel (sq. 14"?)with the holes? thats my next toy but at $125 thanks!John

@Jet_deck - I posted a pic of JMolinari's lid. Mine is almost identical. Chau's is similar, but pooched in a little (for clearance?) Mine has the pizza tray like Jmolinari's. I agree that more heat on the surface is needed. My corniciones are a little blonde inside the circumference.I'm thinkink a slightly smaller pizza tray cut into a D shape and the flat edge folded to create a downdraft.

@JConk007 - I bend each stalk until it breaks naturally. Freeze the broken ends for later use. Add an inch of water to a saucepan. Salt it well and drop in the asparagus. Put the spurs to the heat. As soon as the water bubbles, turn it down. 3-4 minutes later place the pan in the sink and run cold water in the pan until the asparagus is cool to the touch. Bright green and tender crisp! Refrigerate for later use.

I got the 13" and the 15" perforated GI.Metal peels from Brick Oven Baker http://store.brickovenbaker.com/peels. At the time they were on sale...Boom, sold!I think you can also get them from the GI.Metal website and eBay.

@Jet_deck - I posted a pic of JMolinari's lid. Mine is almost identical. Chau's is similar, but pooched in a little (for clearance?) Mine has the pizza tray like Jmolinari's. I agree that more heat on the surface is needed. My corniciones are a little blonde inside the circumference.I'm thinkink a slightly smaller pizza tray cut into a D shape and the flat edge folded to create a downdraft.

From what I remember, when Jason was an active member, his LBE worked really really good & he made some stunning pies with it.